A blog about the mess that occurs in my life. Some good, some bad, a lot random.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Corruption & Bullshit (But I'm Not Bitter)

I pride myself on being someone who doesn't drive like a maniac. I don't even speed (that much). In fact, I've only gotten 2 tickets (1 for speeding when I thought the speed limit was different than it was & the other for driving a friend's car that apparently had an expired tag. She paid me back for that though). That is, until today...

This weekend my dad & I made a whirlwind trip down to West Palm Beach to get my stuff. We left Friday after he got off work at 4:30 & made it down there around 5:45am. We packed, cleaned, loaded my car, & said goodbye to (like 3) people. This (Sunday) morning we left around 7:30am. I started us on the drive.

About 2 hours after departing I was driving through a construction zone that was set at 65mph. I set the cruise control to about 69-71. I saw a cop on the side of the road but I didn't bother slowing down because I know those speed things usually show the car as going a little slower than it really is (at least I've heard that). After a while, he finally pulled out & pulled me over.

He comes over & says he clocked me going 80mph. I told him that no, in fact, I wasn't. I was going about 68. He said I was the only car & that I was going 80. I told him no, I had my cruise control set & there was no way that was possible. I wasn't rude at all (I was incredibly nice) & neither was he, but I wasn't about to deal with him lying to me about my speed so he could meet his quota.

He comes back & tells me that since it was a construction zone that fines were doubled so I'd get a $400 fine, & an automatic 4 points on my license. BUT he dropped it down to a 74mph in a non-construction zone so I would only get a $134 fine & 3 points on my license that I could have dropped by doing online traffic school. How generous & kind he was!

Ultimately, I know I was only pulled over because I had an out-of-state license plate because this kind of thing still happens & he hesitated so long to pull me over in the first place. He also probably thought I was younger than I was (damn baby face) & he could talk me into thinking I was wrong about my speed. But I knew I wasn't wrong & wouldn't go along with it, so that either helped him lower the speed because I might would fight it, or he didn't drop it to a warning because I wouldn't go along with it. Who knows. It's bullshit, either way.

I can't be mad though. He was really nice, aside from the lying. And I can't even be mad at him for lying for his job since I've had to lie to customers at Applebee's when I tell them our food is good.

2 comments:

Yes, but lying to your customers is part of your job description. Sell the food or get fired. If I don't like an item, I personally choose to say, "It's not my favorite, but you might like [something popular, or something I actually do like]." That way I'm not lying and I'm also indicating that it's not a dish I'd recommend choosing, while offering something that's not horrible.

The police officer CHOSE to lie about your speed, and probably didn't count on you using cruise control. I don't care how nice he was; he doesn't have integrity and that's a pretty good chunk of what people call character. If you don't have integrity, you have little else.

I wish you hadn't said that because you're right. Haha! But yeah, I generally don't tell my table to get something if I don't like it. I was just trying to prove a point to make myself feel better about the whole thing.